Male Profiles David William Donald Cameron ( /ˈkæmᵊrən/ ; born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. He was the Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016, and has been Member of Parliament for Witney since 2001. Cameron identifies as a One-Nation Conservative , and has been associated with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies. Born in London to wealthy upper middle-class parents, Cameron was educated at Heatherdown School , Eton College , and Brasenose College, Oxford . From 1988 to 1993 he worked at the Conservative Research Department , assisting the Conservative Prime Minister John Major , before leaving politics to work for Carlton Communications in 1994. Becoming an MP in 2001, he served in the opposition shadow cabinet under Conservative leader Michael Howard , succeeding Howard in 2005. Cameron sought to rebrand the Conservatives, embracing an increasingly socially liberal position.

The 2010 general election led to Cameron becoming Prime Minister as the head of a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats . [2] His premiership was marked by the ongoing effects of the late-2000s financial crisis ; these involved a large deficit in government finances that his government sought to reduce through austerity measures. His administration introduced large-scale changes to welfare , immigration policy , education , and healthcare . [3] It privatised the Royal Mail and some other state assets, and legalised same-sex marriage . Internationally, his government militarily intervened in the Libyan Civil War and later authorised the bombing of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ; domestically, his government oversaw the referendum on voting reform and Scottish independence referendum , both of which confirmed Cameron's favoured outcome. When the Conservatives secured a majority in the 2015 general election , he remained as Prime Minister leading a Conservative government. To fulfil a manifesto pledge, he introduced a referendum on the UK's continuing membership of the EU . Cameron supported continued membership; following the success of the Leave vote, [4] he chose to resign to make way for a new Prime Minister and was succeeded by Theresa May .

[4] [5] Cameron has been praised for modernising the Conservative Party and for reining in the United Kingdom's national debt. Conversely, he has been criticised by figures on both the left and right , and has been accused of political opportunism and social elitism. Cameron has appeared on the Forbes List of The World's Most Powerful People since 2010. [6] Family Cameron is the younger son of Ian Donald Cameron (1932–2010), a stockbroker , and his wife Mary Fleur, née Mount (born 1934), [7] a retired Justice of the Peace and a daughter of Sir William Mount, 2nd Baronet . Cameron's parents were married on 20 October 1962. [7] The journalist Toby Young has described Cameron's background as being "upper-upper-middle class". [8] Cameron was born in Marylebone , London, [9] and raised in Peasemore, Berkshire .

He has a brother, Alexander Cameron , QC (born 1963), a barrister , [10] and two sisters, Tania Rachel (born 1965) and Clare Louise (born 1971). [7] [11] His father, Ian, was born at Blairmore House near Huntly , Aberdeenshire , and died near Toulon , France, on 8 September 2010; [13] Ian was born with both legs deformed and underwent repeated operations to correct them. Blairmore was built by Cameron's great-great-grandfather, Alexander Geddes, [14] who had made a fortune in the grain trade in Chicago, Illinois , before returning to Scotland in the 1880s. [15] Cameron has said, "On my mother's side of the family, her mother was a Llewellyn, so Welsh . I'm a real mixture of Scottish , Welsh, and English ." [16] He has also referenced the German Jewish ancestry of one of his great-grandfathers, Arthur Levita, a descendant of the Yiddish author Elia Levita .

[17] [18] Education From the age of seven, Cameron was educated at two independent schools : at Heatherdown School in Winkfield (near Ascot ) in Berkshire , which counts Prince Andrew and Prince Edward among its old boys. Due to good grades, Cameron entered its top academic class almost two years early. [19] At the age of thirteen, he went on to Eton College in Berkshire , following his father and elder brother. His early interest was in art. Six weeks before taking his O-Levels he was caught smoking cannabis . [21] He admitted the offence and had not been involved in selling drugs, so he was not expelled, but was fined, prevented from leaving the school grounds, and given a " Georgic " (a punishment which involved copying 500 lines of Latin text). Cameron passed twelve O-Levels and then three A-levels : History of art , History, in which he was taught by Michael Kidson , and Economics with Politics. He obtained three 'A' grades and a '1' grade in the Scholarship Level exam in Economics and Politics. The following autumn he passed the entrance exam for the University of Oxford , and was offered an exhibition at Brasenose College .

After leaving Eton in 1984, [3] Cameron started a nine-month gap year . For three months he worked as a researcher for his godfather Tim Rathbone , then Conservative MP for Lewes , during which time he attended debates in the House of Commons . Through his father, he was then employed for a further three months in Hong Kong by Jardine Matheson as a 'ship jumper', an administrative post. Returning from Hong Kong, Cameron visited the then Soviet Union , where he was approached by two Russian men speaking fluent English. Cameron was later told by one of his professors that it was "definitely an attempt" by the KGB to recruit him. [23] In October 1985, Cameron began his Bachelor of Arts course in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Brasenose College, Oxford. [24] His tutor, Professor Vernon Bogdanor , has described him as "one of the ablest" students he has taught, [25] with "moderate and sensible Conservative" political views . [11] Guy Spier , who shared tutorials with him, remembers him as an outstanding student: "We were doing our best to grasp basic economic concepts.

David—there was nobody else who came even close. He would be integrating them with the way the British political system is put together. He could have lectured me on it, and I would have sat there and taken notes." [26] When commenting in 2006 on his former pupil's ideas about a "Bill of Rights" to replace the Human Rights Act , however, Professor Bogdanor, himself a Liberal Democrat , said, "I think he is very confused. I've read his speech and it's filled with contradictions. There are one or two good things in it but one glimpses them, as it were, through a mist of misunderstanding". [27] While at Oxford, Cameron was a member of the student dining society the Bullingdon Club , which has a reputation for an outlandish drinking culture associated with boisterous behaviour and damaging property. [28] Cameron's period in the Bullingdon Club was examined in a Channel 4 docu-drama, When Boris Met Dave . Cameron graduated in 1988 with a first-class honours BA degree (later promoted to an MA by seniority).

[29] Early political career Conservative Research Department After graduation, Cameron worked for the Conservative Research Department between September 1988 and 1993. His first brief was Trade and Industry, Energy and Privatisation, and he befriended fellow young colleagues including Edward Llewellyn , Ed Vaizey and Rachel Whetstone . They and others formed a group they called the " Smith Square set", which was dubbed the "Brat Pack" by the press, though it is better known as the " Notting Hill set ", a name given to it pejoratively by Derek Conway . In 1991, Cameron was seconded to Downing Street to work on briefing John Major for the then bi-weekly sessions of Prime Minister's Questions . One newspaper gave Cameron the credit for "sharper ... Despatch box performances" by Major, which included highlighting for Major "a dreadful piece of doublespeak " by Tony Blair (then the Labour Employment spokesman) over the effect of a national minimum wage . [30] He became head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department, and in August 1991 was tipped to follow Judith Chaplin as Political Secretary to the Prime Minister.

However, Cameron lost to Jonathan Hill , who was appointed in March 1992. Instead, Cameron was given the responsibility for briefing Major for his press conferences during the 1992 general election . [19] During the campaign, Cameron was one of the young "brat pack" of party strategists who worked between 12 and 20 hours a day, sleeping in the house of Alan Duncan in Gayfere Street , Westminster , which had been Major's campaign headquarters during his bid for the Conservative leadership. [19] Cameron headed the economic section; it was while working on this campaign that Cameron first worked closely with and befriended Steve Hilton , who was later to become Director of Strategy during his party leadership. The strain of getting up at 04:45 every day was reported to have led Cameron to decide to leave politics in favour of journalism. Special Adviser to the Chancellor The Conservatives' unexpected success in the 1992 election led Cameron to hit back at older party members who had criticised him and his colleagues, saying "whatever people say about us, we got the campaign right," and that they had listened to their campaign workers on the ground rather than the newspapers.

He revealed he had led other members of the team across Smith Square to jeer at Transport House , the former Labour headquarters. [19] Cameron was rewarded with a promotion to Special Adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer , Norman Lamont . Cameron was working for Lamont at the time of Black Wednesday , when pressure from currency speculators forced the pound sterling out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism . At the 1992 Conservative Party conference, Cameron had difficulty trying to arrange to brief the speakers in the economic debate, having to resort to putting messages on the internal television system imploring the mover of the motion, Patricia Morris , to contact him. [19] Later that month Cameron joined a delegation of Special Advisers who visited Germany to build better relations with the Christian Democratic Union ; he was reported to be "still smarting" over the Bundesbank 's contribution to the economic crisis. Lamont fell out with John Major after Black Wednesday and became highly unpopular with the public. Taxes needed to be raised in the 1993 Budget, and Cameron fed the options Lamont was considering through to Conservative Campaign Headquarters for their political acceptability to be assessed.

[19] By May 1993, the Conservatives' average poll rating dropped below 30%, where they would remain until the 1997 general election . Major and Lamont's personal ratings also declined dramatically. However, Lamont's unpopularity did not necessarily affect Cameron: he was considered as a potential " kamikaze " candidate for the Newbury by-election , which includes the area where he grew up. However, Cameron decided not to stand. During the by-election, Lamont gave the response " Je ne regrette rien " to a question about whether he most regretted claiming to see "the green shoots of recovery" or admitting to "singing in his bath" with happiness at leaving the European Exchange Rate Mechanism . Cameron was identified by one journalist as having inspired this gaffe; it was speculated that the heavy Conservative defeat in Newbury may have cost Cameron his chance of becoming Chancellor himself, even though as he was not a Member of Parliament he could not have been. Lamont was sacked at the end of May 1993, and decided not to write the usual letter of resignation; Cameron was given the responsibility to issue to the press a statement of self-justification.

Special Adviser to the Home Secretary After Lamont was sacked, Cameron remained at the Treasury for less than a month before being specifically recruited by Home Secretary Michael Howard . It was commented that he was still "very much in favour" and it was later reported that many at the Treasury would have preferred Cameron to carry on. At the beginning of September 1993, Cameron applied to go on Conservative Central Office's list of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates. Cameron was much more socially liberal than Howard but enjoyed working for him. According to Derek Lewis , then Director-General of Her Majesty's Prison Service , Cameron showed him a "his and hers list" of proposals made by Howard and his wife, Sandra. Lewis said that Sandra Howard 's list included reducing the quality of prison food , although Sandra Howard denied this claim. Lewis reported that Cameron was "uncomfortable" about the list. In defending Sandra Howard and insisting that she made no such proposal, the journalist Bruce Anderson wrote that Cameron had proposed a much shorter definition on prison catering which revolved around the phrase "balanced diet", and that Lewis had written thanking Cameron for a valuable contribution. During his work for Howard, Cameron often briefed the media.

In March 1994, someone leaked to the press that the Labour Party had called for a meeting with John Major to discuss a consensus on the Prevention of Terrorism Act . After an inquiry failed to find the source of the leak, Labour MP Peter Mandelson demanded assurance from Howard that Cameron had not been responsible, which Howard gave. [6] A senior Home Office civil servant noted the influence of Howard's Special Advisers, saying previous incumbents "would listen to the evidence before making a decision. Howard just talks to young public school gentlemen from the party headquarters." [6] Carlton In July 1994, Cameron left his role as Special Adviser to work as the Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communications . Carlton, which had won the ITV franchise for London weekdays in 1991, was a growing media company which also had film-distribution and video-producing arms. Cameron was suggested for the role to Carlton executive chairman Michael P. Green by his later mother-in-law Lady Astor. [33] Cameron left Carlton to run for Parliament in 1997, returning to his job after his defeat.

In 1997, Cameron played up the Company's prospects for digital terrestrial television , for which it joined with ITV Granada and Sky to form British Digital Broadcasting . In a roundtable discussion on the future of broadcasting in 1998 he criticised the effect of overlapping different regulators on the industry. Carlton's consortium did win the digital terrestrial franchise but the resulting company suffered difficulties in attracting subscribers. Cameron resigned as Director of Corporate Affairs in February 2001 in order to run for Parliament for a second time, although he remained on the payroll as a consultant. Parliamentary candidacies Having been approved for the Candidates' list, Cameron began looking for a seat to contest for the 1997 general election . He was reported to have missed out on selection for Ashford in December 1994 after failing to get to the selection meeting as a result of train delays. In January 1996, when two shortlisted contenders dropped out, Cameron was interviewed and subsequently selected for Stafford , a constituency revised in boundary changes, which was projected to have a Conservative majority. The incumbent Conservative MP, Bill Cash , ran instead in the neighbouring constituency of Stone , where he was re-elected.

At the 1996 Conservative Party Conference, Cameron called for tax cuts in the forthcoming Budget to be targeted at the low-paid and to "small businesses where people took money out of their own pockets to put into companies to keep them going". He also said the Party "should be proud of the Tory tax record but that people needed reminding of its achievements ... It's time to return to our tax-cutting agenda. The socialist Prime Ministers of Europe have endorsed Tony Blair because they want a federal pussy cat and not a British lion." [34] When writing his election address, Cameron made his own opposition to British membership of the single European currency clear, pledging not to support it. This was a break with official Conservative policy but about 200 other candidates were making similar declarations. Otherwise, Cameron kept closely to the national party line . He also campaigned using the claim that a Labour Government would increase the cost of a pint of beer by 24p; however, the Labour candidate, David Kidney , portrayed Cameron as "a right-wing Tory". Initially, Cameron thought he had a 50/50 chance but as the campaign wore on and the scale of the impending Conservative defeat grew, Cameron prepared himself for defeat.

On election day, Stafford had a swing of 10.7%, almost the same as the national swing, which made it one of the many seats to fall to Labour: Kidney defeated Cameron by 24,606 votes (47.5%) to 20,292 (39.2%), a majority of 4,314 (8.3%). [19] [36] In the round of selection contests taking place in the run-up to the 2001 general election , Cameron again attempted to be selected for a winnable seat. He tried for the Kensington and Chelsea seat after the death of Alan Clark , but did not make the shortlist. He was in the final two but narrowly lost at Wealden in March 2000, a loss ascribed by Samantha Cameron to his lack of spontaneity when speaking. On 4 April 2000 Cameron was selected as prospective candidate (PPC) for Witney in Oxfordshire .

This had been a safe Conservative seat but its sitting MP Shaun Woodward (who had worked with Cameron on the 1992 election campaign) had "crossed the floor" to join the Labour Party and was selected instead for the safe Labour seat of St Helens South . Cameron's biographers Francis Elliott and James Hanning describe the two men as being "on fairly friendly terms". Cameron, advised in his strategy by friend Catherine Fall , put a great deal of effort into "nursing" his potential constituency, turning up at social functions, and attacking Woodward for changing his mind on fox hunting to support a ban. During the election campaign, Cameron accepted the offer of writing a regular column for The Guardian 's online section. [37] He won the seat with a 1.9% swing to the Conservatives, taking 22,153 votes (45%) to Labour candidate Michael Bartlet's 14,180 (28.8%), a majority of 7,973 (16.2%).

[3] [38] Member of Parliament, 2001–05 Upon his election to Parliament, he served as a member of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee , a prominent appointment for a newly elected MP. Cameron proposed that the Committee launch an inquiry into the law on drugs, and urged the consideration of "radical options". [39] The report recommended a downgrading of Ecstasy from Class A to Class B, as well as moves towards a policy of ' harm reduction ', which Cameron defended. Cameron determinedly attempted to increase his public visibility, offering quotations on matters of public controversy. He opposed the payment of compensation to Gurbux Singh, who had resigned as head of the Commission for Racial Equality after a confrontation with the police; and commented that the Home Affairs Select Committee had taken a long time to discuss whether the phrase "black market" should be used. However, he was passed over for a front-bench promotion in July 2002; Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith did invite Cameron and his ally George Osborne to coach him on Prime Minister's Questions in November 2002.

The next week, Cameron deliberately abstained in a vote on allowing same-sex and unmarried couples to adopt children jointly, against a whip to oppose; his abstention was noted. The wide scale of abstentions and rebellious votes destabilised the Duncan Smith leadership. In June 2003, Cameron was appointed a shadow minister in the Privy Council Office as a deputy to Eric Forth , then Shadow Leader of the House . He also became a vice- chairman of the Conservative Party when Michael Howard took over the leadership in November of that year. He was appointed Opposition frontbench local government spokesman in 2004, before being promoted to the Shadow Cabinet that June as head of policy co-ordination. Later, he became Shadow Education Secretary in the post-election reshuffle. [8] Daniel Finkelstein has said of the period leading up to Cameron's election as leader of the Conservative party that "a small group of us (myself, David Cameron, George Osborne , Michael Gove , Nick Boles , Nick Herbert I think, once or twice) used to meet up in the offices of Policy Exchange , eat pizza, and consider the future of the Conservative Party".

[8] Cameron's relationship with Osborne is regarded as particularly close; Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi suggested the closeness of Osborne's relationship with Cameron meant the two effectively shared power during Cameron's time as Prime Minister. [43] From February 2002 to August 2005 he was a non-executive director of Urbium PLC, operator of the Tiger Tiger bar chain. [44] Conservative Party leadership 2005 leadership election Following the Labour victory in the May 2005 general election , Michael Howard announced his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party and set a lengthy timetable for the leadership election . Cameron announced on 29 September 2005 that he would be a candidate. Parliamentary colleagues supporting him included Boris Johnson , Shadow Chancellor George Osborne , Shadow Defence Secretary and deputy leader of the party Michael Ancram , Oliver Letwin [8] and former party leader William Hague . [8] His campaign did not gain wide support until his speech, delivered without notes, at the 2005 Conservative Party Conference .

In the speech he vowed to make people "feel good about being Conservatives again" and said he wanted "to switch on a whole new generation." [9] His speech was well-received; The Daily Telegraph said speaking without notes "showed a sureness and a confidence that is greatly to his credit". [9] In the first ballot of Conservative MPs on 18 October 2005, Cameron came second, with 56 votes, slightly more than expected; David Davis had fewer than predicted at 62 votes; Liam Fox came third with 42 votes; and Kenneth Clarke was eliminated with 38 votes. In the second ballot on 20 October 2005, Cameron came first with 90 votes; David Davis was second, with 57; and Liam Fox was eliminated with 51 votes. [9] All 198 Conservative MPs voted in both ballots. The next stage of the election process, between Davis and Cameron, was a vote open to the entire party membership.

Cameron was elected with more than twice as many votes as Davis and more than half of all ballots issued; Cameron won 134,446 votes on a 78% turnout , to Davis's 64,398. [9] Although Davis had initially been the favourite, it was widely acknowledged that his candidacy was marred by a disappointing conference speech. [9] Cameron's election as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition was announced on 6 December 2005. As is customary for an Opposition leader not already a member, upon election Cameron became a member of the Privy Council , being formally approved to join on 14 December 2005, and sworn of the Council on 8 March 2006. [9] Reaction to Cameron as Leader Cameron's relative youth and inexperience before becoming leader have invited satirical comparison with Tony Blair . Private Eye soon published a picture of both leaders on its front cover, with the caption "World's first face transplant a success". [9] On the left , the New Statesman unfavourably likened his "new style of politics" to Tony Blair's early leadership years.

[54] Cameron was accused of paying excessive attention to appearance: ITV News broadcast footage from the 2006 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth shows him wearing four different sets of clothes within a few hours. In his Guardian column, comedy writer and broadcaster Charlie Brooker described the Conservative leader as "a hollow Easter egg with no bag of sweets inside" in April 2007. [9] On the right of the party, Norman Tebbit , a former Conservative Chairman , likened Cameron to Pol Pot , "intent on purging even the memory of Thatcherism before building a New Modern Compassionate Green Globally Aware Party". Quentin Davies MP, who defected from the Conservatives to Labour on 26 June 2007, branded him "superficial, unreliable and [with] an apparent lack of any clear convictions" and stated that David Cameron had turned the Conservative Party's mission into a "PR agenda". [56] Traditionalist conservative columnist and author Peter Hitchens wrote, "Mr Cameron has abandoned the last significant difference between his party and the established left", by embracing social liberalism.

[57] Daily Telegraph correspondent and blogger Gerald Warner was particularly scathing about Cameron's leadership, saying that it alienated traditionalist conservative elements from the Conservative Party. [58] Before he became Conservative leader, Cameron was reported to be known to friends and family as "Dave", though his preference is "David" in public. [59] [61] Labour used the slogan Dave the Chameleon in their 2006 local elections party broadcast to portray Cameron as an ever-changing populist , which was criticised as negative campaigning by the conservative press including The Telegraph , [62] though Cameron asserted the broadcast had become his daughter's "favourite video". [63] Shadow Cabinet appointments His Shadow Cabinet appointments included MPs associated with the various wings of the party. Former leader William Hague was appointed to the Foreign Affairs brief, while both George Osborne and David Davis were retained, as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and Shadow Home Secretary respectively. Hague, assisted by Davis, stood in for Cameron during his paternity leave in February 2006.

[64] In June 2008 Davis announced his intention to resign as an MP , and was immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary by Dominic Grieve ; Davis' surprise move was seen as a challenge to the changes introduced under Cameron's leadership. [65] In January 2009 a reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet was undertaken. The chief change was the appointment of former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke as Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Secretary, David Cameron stating that "With Ken Clarke's arrival, we now have the best economic team." The reshuffle also saw eight other changes made. [66] European Conservatives and Reformists During his successful 2005 campaign to be elected Leader of the Conservative Party, Cameron pledged that the Conservative Party's Members of the European Parliament would leave the European People's Party group, which had a "federalist" approach to the European Union.

[67] Once elected Cameron began discussions with right-wing and Eurosceptic parties in other European countries, mainly in eastern Europe, and in July 2006 he concluded an agreement to form the Movement for European Reform with the Czech Civic Democratic Party , leading to the formation of a new European Parliament group, the European Conservatives and Reformists , in 2009 after the European Parliament elections . [68] Cameron attended a gathering at Warsaw 's Palladium cinema celebrating the foundation of the alliance. [69] In forming the caucus, which had 54 MEPs drawn from eight of the 27 EU member states , Cameron reportedly broke with two decades of Conservative co-operation with the centre-right Christian Democrats, the European People's Party (EPP), [70] on the grounds that they are dominated by European federalists and supporters of the Lisbon treaty . [70] EPP leader Wilfried Martens , former Prime Minister of Belgium , has stated "Cameron's campaign has been to take his party back to the centre in every policy area with one major exception: Europe. ... I can't understand his tactics.

Merkel and Sarkozy will never accept his Euroscepticism." [70] Shortlists for Parliamentary candidates Similarly, Cameron's initial " A-List " of prospective parliamentary candidates was attacked by members of his party, [71] and the policy was discontinued in favour of sex-balanced final shortlists. Before being discontinued, the policy had been criticised by senior Conservative MP and former Prisons Spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe as an "insult to women", and she had accused Cameron of "storing up huge problems for the future." 2010 general election The Conservatives had last won a general election in 1992 . The general election of 2010 resulted in the Conservatives, led by Cameron, winning the largest number of seats (306). This was, however, 20 seats short of an overall majority and resulted in the nation's first hung parliament since February 1974 . [72] Talks between Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg led to an agreed Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.

Cameron in late 2009 had urged the Liberal Democrats to join the Conservatives in a new "national movement" saying there was "barely a cigarette paper" between them on a large number of issues. The invitation was rejected at the time by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg , who said that the Conservatives were totally different from his party and that the Lib Dems were the true "progressives" in UK politics. [73] Prime Minister On 11 May 2010, following the resignation of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister and on his recommendation, Elizabeth II invited Cameron to form a government. [74] At age 43, Cameron became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812, beating the record previously set by Tony Blair in May 1997. [2] In his first address outside 10 Downing Street , he announced his intention to form a coalition government , the first since the Second World War , with the Liberal Democrats .

Cameron outlined how he intended to "put aside party differences and work hard for the common good and for the national interest." [2] As one of his first moves Cameron appointed Nick Clegg , the leader of the Liberal Democrats, as Deputy Prime Minister on 11 May 2010. [74] Between them, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats controlled 363 seats in the House of Commons, with a majority of 76 seats. [75] On 2 June 2010, when Cameron took his first session of Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) as Prime Minister, he began by offering his support and condolences to those affected by the shootings in Cumbria . [76] In June 2010 Cameron described the economic situation as he came to power as "even worse than we thought" and warned of "difficult decisions" to be made over spending cuts.

[77] By the beginning of 2015 he was able to claim that his government's austerity programme had succeeded in halving the budget deficit, though critics described the claim as misleading since it was only true of the deficit measured as a percentage of GDP [78] [79] On 5 February 2011, Cameron criticised the failure of 'state multiculturalism ', in his first speech as PM on radicalisation and the causes of terrorism. [80] In July 2015, he outlined a five-year strategy to counter Islamist extremism and subversive teachings. [81] Cameron agreed to holding the Scottish independence referendum, 2014 and eliminated the " devomax " option from the ballot for a straight out yes or no vote. He supported the successful Better Together campaign. He had also backed a successful campaign to retain the status quo in a referendum on changing the voting system held at the request of his coalition partners. He supported the introduction of gay marriage despite more of his own Conservative MPs voting against the move than for it, meaning the support of Lib Dem MPs in government and Labour MPs in opposition was required to allow it to pass.

[82] Earlier in his term he had managed to secure a huge majority for UK participation in UN-backed military action in Libya. [83] However, Cameron became the first prime minister in over 100 years to lose a foreign policy vote in the House of Commons over proposed military action against Assad's regime in Syria. [84] 2015 general election On 7 May 2015, Cameron was re-elected UK Prime Minister with a majority in the Commons. The Conservative Party's decisive win in the general election was as a surprise victory, as most polls and commentators predicted the outcome would be too close to call and result in a second hung parliament . [13] Cameron said of his first term when returned as Prime Minister for a second term that he was "proud to lead the first coalition government in 70 years" and offered particular thanks to Clegg for his role in it. [13] Forming the first Conservative majority government since 1992, David Cameron became the first Prime Minister to be re-elected immediately after a full term with a larger popular vote share since Lord Salisbury at the 1900 general election .

In response to the November 2015 Paris attacks , Cameron secured the support of the House of Commons to extend air strikes against ISIS into Syria. [13] 2016 referendum and resignation As promised in the election manifesto, Cameron set a date for a referendum on whether the UK should remain a member of the European Union , and announced that he would be campaigning for Britain to remain within a "reformed EU". [13] The terms of the UK's membership of the EU were re-negotiated , with agreement reached in February 2016. [13] In the referendum of 23 June 2016, the British electorate voted in favour of leaving the European Union. [91] [92] [93] On 24 June, a few hours after the results became known, Cameron announced that he would resign the office of Prime Minister by the start of the Conservative Party Conference in October 2016.

[4] [13] Very intense criticism followed the realisation of just how much the referendum had split the country, with The Independent saying it was called to save Cameron's job and was an act of "indescribably selfish recklessness." [95] In late July, the Foreign Affairs Select Committee was told that Cameron had refused to allow the Civil service to make plans for Brexit, a decision the committee described as "an act of gross negligence." [96] The Conservative Party leadership election was scheduled for 9 September and the new leader was expected to be in place by the autumn conference, set to begin on 2 October. [97] On 11 July, following the withdrawal of Andrea Leadsom from the Conservative Party leadership election and the confirmation of Theresa May as the new leader of the Conservative Party , Cameron announced he would hold a final cabinet meeting on 12 July and then following a final Prime Minister's Questions submit his resignation to the Queen on the afternoon of 13 July.

After his final Prime Minister's Questions, Cameron received a standing ovation from MPs; one of his final comments was, "I was the future once" – a reference to his 2005 quip to Tony Blair, "he was the future once". Cameron then submitted his resignation to the Queen later that day. [98] Although no longer the PM, he has stated that he will continue in Parliament as a backbench Conservative MP. [99] Policies and views Self-description of views Cameron describes himself in December 2005 as a "modern compassionate conservative " and has spoken of a need for a new style of politics, saying that he was "fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster ". [100] He is "certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite", [101] claiming to be a "liberal Conservative", though "not a deeply ideological person." [102] As Leader of the Opposition, Cameron asserted that he did not intend to oppose the government as a matter of course, and would offer his support in areas of agreement.

He has urged politicians to concentrate more on improving people's happiness and "general well-being", instead of focusing solely on "financial wealth". [103] There were claims that he described himself to journalists at a dinner during the leadership contest as the "heir to Blair". [104] In his first Conservative Conference speech as party leader in Bournemouth in 2006, he described the National Health Service as "one of the 20th Century's greatest achievements". He went on to say, " Tony Blair explained his priorities in three words: education, education, education. I can do it in three letters: N.H.S." He also talked about his severely disabled son, Ivan, concluding "So, for me, it is not just a question of saying the NHS is safe in my hands—of course it will be. My family is so often in the hands of the NHS, so I want them to be safe there." [105] Cameron said that he believes in "spreading freedom and democracy, and supporting humanitarian intervention" in cases such as the genocide in Darfur , Sudan .

However, he rejected neo-conservatism because, as a conservative , he recognises "the complexities of human nature , and will always be sceptical of grand schemes to remake the world." [106] A supporter of multilateralism as "a country may act alone—but it cannot always succeed alone", he believes multilateralism can take the form of acting through " NATO , the UN , the G8 , the EU and other institutions", or through international alliances .

[107] Cameron said that "If the West is to help other countries, we must do so from a position of genuine moral authority" and "we must strive above all for legitimacy in what we do." [107] He believes that British Muslims have a duty to integrate into British culture, but noted in an article published in 2007 that the Muslim community finds aspects such as high divorce rates and drug use uninspiring, and that "Not for the first time, I found myself thinking that it is mainstream Britain which needs to integrate more with the British Asian way of life, not the other way around." [108] In 2010 he appointed the first Muslim member of the British cabinet, Baroness Warsi , as a minister without portfolio, and in 2012 made her a special minister of state in foreign affairs. She resigned, however, in August 2014 over the government's handling of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict . Whilst urging members of his party to support the coalition's proposals for same-sex marriage , Cameron said that he backed gay marriage not in spite of his conservatism but because he is a conservative, and claimed it was about equality.

[109] In 2012, Cameron publicly apologised for Thatcher-era policies on homosexuality, specifically the introduction of the controversial Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 , which he described as "a mistake". [110]

Question: Which British newspaper was mainly responsible for exposing the MP's expenses scandal in 2009?
Answer: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH